First Things First

When we first came up with the concept of having this page, we couldn’t stop debating about what should be on here. If this is a starting page than it needs to contain everything that one might need to start a socially responsible business. The question is how much information should we provide, without overwhelming you? Another question how can we guess properly what information you might need? So, below are our thoughts, and if there is anything else that you think might help social entrepreneurs begin their work just email us.

Our Map

Before you go on, we highly recommend that you review our Map of Social Entrepreneurship. It will give show you major players in this field. You will not find this feature anywhere else. Since the map is so extensive, you might have to scroll.

Definition

Social entrepreneurs are innovators who create sustainable business solutions to address the challenges of today’s world.
Social entrepreneurs are seriously ambitious, emotionally driven beings that are often unqualified in their pursuits to change the system according to their vision of the future; doing so they seek profit, where non-profits rule, they ignore the evidence, they measure the immeasurable and doing so they succeed, and when they do – they refuse to be called superheroes.
Unlike common businesses social entrepreneurs do not measure the success of their ventures in the profits made, but rather in the social changes and reforms they accomplish. The first promoter of social entrepreneurship was Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka. Please refer to our blog posting to read more about social entrepreneurship.

Using This Site

The site has been designed on a basic premises - great things are simple. Therefore the site should be close to self-explanatory. That being said we do want to provide a basic explanation of our key pages.

Blog - we do have a lot to say. Here you can find our thoughts on social entrepreneurship, comments on recent news and our various insights on the world around us.

Digest - first, we just wanted to post a list of books on social entrepreneurship. But then we reconsidered. There is no value for you just to see a list of couple dozen books. It would be a lot more valuable if we reviewed these books and published digests on what you can find in these books, what we like in them and what sections are particularly important. Then we thought, what if we could publish such digests on various resources, and not just books. This is exactly what we are planning to do. Check back regularly to see our new digests.

Entrepreneur -This page is for each of you. Read about fellow entrepreneurs and their thoughts on a wide range of meaningful topics. We encourage you to join in, send us some information about yourself and your ideas on how to change the world.

News - read what makes the headline.

Profiles - view the profiles of socially responsible businesses. Some companies were kind enough to share their business experience and even post case studies. Feel free to do the same.

Questions - See what experts have to say on a subject of social entrepreneurship. Several experts have posted their tips on how to be successful in running socially responsible start-ups. Review the answers they gave to already posted questions, and post some new ones.

Who is Who - people, foundations, networks and venture capitalists that play important roles in the area of social entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship 101 - You are reading it.

Events - schedule of various conferences, seminars and webinars.

Get Involved - Feel the need to contribute? We certainly would appreciate your help. Read how you can help us make this site better doing what you love.

Opportunities - Jobs and volunteering opportunities.

Opportunities

Interested in helping but not sure where to start? We have created a list of areas where opportunities for improvement are endless. Below are these areas, if one of them touches you, just follow the link and ger more information on this opportunity.

Human Rights - theoretically speaking every person should have certain rights. Freedom of religion, freedom of expression, the right not to be tortured and the right to be politically active are couple examples of basic human rights. Although every person is entitled to these rights, a lot of people are struggling while their rights are being surpassed. Millions of people worldwide need help in getting back their rights.

Global Economy - poverty, hunger and national debts are only some of the examples that economical disadvantages that people are currently experiencing. Perhaps you can Mohammad Yunus with his efforts to wipe away poverty, or may be stand besides Bono in his efforts to relive undeveloped nations of their debts.

Health - international health issues are affected by a lot of different factors such as epidemiology, sociology, demography, immunization and economy. Whether it is preventing the spread of infectious diseases, improving health care in the USA, offering free quality medical treatment to the poor, or opening out pharmaceutical plants in the underdeveloped regions, the work of innovators in this field is necessary.

Learning and Education - most of the people refer to education as power, the power to shape your life. Millions of people around the world never get an opportunity to learn or receive such poor education that they are not able to use it to create tangible difference in their lives. Education can always be improved, and we never can have too much of it. Therefore, this is a perfect everlasting opportunity. Help people gain power over their lives in improving their learning and education.

Environment - can the environmental threat be emphasized more by Al Gore? The challenges here are enormous and many say that if we do not act we will be the generation that killed the environment. Pollution, global warming, green house effect, need we say more? Being one of the most pressing challenges in today’s world it also is a habitat for a lot of companies that are eager to act.

Peace and Security - Imagine living in a world where every minute you have to be ready to hide in a bomb shelter, imagine not knowing if in the middle of the night your family would be arrested for no particular reason, imagine going to work worried that you might not come home. Today, people around the world do not have to imagine these things as they live in such chaos.

Community Engagement - Get involved, and better yet get your friends involved. Every challenge that we face today was created by people, and therefore it can only be solved by us. Engaging groups of people to work in the areas listed above is an art. Show us your mastery.

Legal Structures

Starting an organization that will change the world, requires some busy work. For example you still have to decide what kind of legal entity you want to be and what do you want to do with your profits. There are several models:

For-profit business venture. This way your organizaztion is not much different than any company. You conduct your business practices, make income and than decide whether you personally want to keep it and grow your own wealth or put it back in a company. Companies that are set up this way tend to have a greater growth potential as they ultimately are looking to generate more profits. Unlike non-profit entities, for-profit companies can rarely get a grant from a foundation and either have to rely on venture capital money or own resources. The examples are: Grameen Bank and Accion, two companies that are in the area of micro-financing.

Non-profit organization. This is the most popular option among social entrepreneurs. Since a lot of people in this field rely on the help foundations, non-profit business ventures are very popular. The problem here is scaling, it is much harder to make a company grow when making money is not your priority. Another problem is philantory dependency, it is very hard for an organization to grow when it constantly has to worry about applying for grants and government programs. A lot of people who start non-profit ventures believe that this way they are more committed to the cause and making money is rightfully not their priority, but this will limit their expansion and growth. Non-profits rarely sell products or services, but rather fight for people’s basic rights and their access to public good. Red Cross, Habitata for Humanity and the Sierra Club are widely known examples.

Hybrid Ventures. Just when you thougt if there is a way to combine the benefits of for-profit and non-profit business ventures, this option became available. Using this model entrepreneurs tend to use strategies available in the previous two examples (for-profit ventures and non-profit organizations). This model is a recent addition to the business setting, and therefore strategies and opportunities here are still being explored. In this model social entreprises are focused on making money, but tend to put a cap on how much of the profits will go to the founder, and the rest is being reinvested into the company. these organizations tend to start as non-profit ventures that focus on helping people get public goods, and then start to sell products or services. Organizations can also try to get money from philanthropic sources, as well as from private companies.

Here are couple links, where you can find some additional information on legalities associated with starting your own social enterprise.

Lex Mundi - a world’s leading association of Independent law firms. Recently they started a foundation to support social entrepreneurs. You can find some free advices at their site, Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation.

Vertue Ventures - a firm committed to the spread of social entrepreneurship worldwide. They have information page that talks about legal environment and legal structures. Link.

Center for Community Futures has a toolkit available for free that talks about non-profit and for-profit companies and how they work. PDF file available here.

Ethics World - contains a lot of information on business ethics and legal governance of non-profit organizations. The site contains an extensive collection of information on non-profit governance. Link.

Networks

When you are joing a new field it is im[portant to make good friends in it. You talk to fellow enthusiasts, learn what they are doing and share lessons learned. On our Who is Who Page you can view a detailed list of Foundations, Centers and Networks that play key roles in the field of social entrepreneurship. Here is a couple to get started.

Change. org - organization unites fellow minded people and organizations to work together on similar goals. People can join groups aimed at accomplsihing such goals as Increase recycling innitiatives, raise money for this goal and create common action plans. Each goal has a collection of resources associated with it to help people.

Idealist.org - here it is all about exchange. Exchange of ideas, exchange of opportunities, exchange of information and resources. This site contains a direcotry volunteers in each state who are willing to help with new innitiaitves. Here you can also find a list of jobs in various organizations that fight for social change.

University Network - this is a network of resources created by researchers, professors and other members of academia. Here you can download some of the resources professors use around campuse in USA to teach social entrepreneurship. You can find quite a few case studies and then discuss their usefulness with other site members.

Social Venture Network - this is a network of already experienced social entrepreneuers and seeded change makers. SVN connects people together and leverages their individual strenghts in order to achieve common goals. The site contains a discent collection of resources and some job postings.

International Network of Social Entrepreneurs - a network, just like it sounds. Over 200o members to connect with, almost 250 member objectives to approach and 150 connections for you to use. You have to be a member to use any of site’s resources. The site’s overall mission is to end poverty by 2015. Let’s help them.

Flow - Three words define this site: Ideas, Action, Community. Ideas create actions, and communities are organized to approach these actions. The site helps unleash people their entrepreneurial spirit. Unleash your potential here.